EVAN GRAY

from SHOE-MOUTH GARDEN

Earth begat the birth
carnation (Dianthus caryophyllus) yellow not
too common: before his best friend wrecked the truck

and now he carries a piano back. Chinese violet (Telosma cordata)
doing 55 with his plastic foot
‘ll do it to you, warped the peddle

pungent order
marigold (Tagetes erecta) odorless impossible
yellow ginger (Hedychium flavescens)
picked in patches; the gasoline
spilled on in the tree patch
strung singly or triply

tailored into a circle dainty
poor keeping quality
used with greens or ferns
ignited the rest was left

the Mayor washed his mouth out
over the fireplace after he sold it
royal lei scratches your neck
sections of fruit
visible from the back
it should complement

a small may look better on the arm
on the belt or tucked in the hair

can be unsightly
especially on a petite person

if all else fails you are faced with bright color
I have often wondered

I have seen a few of these
the field mice are artisan
and destined to begat the fire

to store most remove the ribbon
bow, sprinkle lightly with cold water
slip into a polyethylene bag
seal in the refrigerator if you are travelling
or if you have no refrigeration
put in an ashtray of cold water
instead of buying readymade plastic

Gaviota, Foliar                       21-21-21                      1 Tbs/gal

Gaviota, Orchid                     10-12-10                      1 Tbs/gal
Soluble 

Gaviota, Orchid                     6-14-7.5                       1 Tbs/gal
Organic 

Peter’s High N                       30-10-10                      1 Tbs/gal

Ra-pid-gro                              23-19-17                       2 tsp/gal

the hills are gearing up and motion sick
tax evasion will cover up the garden

Hank Snow is not even on the radio
the radio is strung up in the pines
I forgot how to get back to it

VIRUSES

You’re either for it or against it

goddamn me for thinking otherwise that the rat snake banker sold me good dope

my hands are firing pistols unto the god green

each contains the seeds that will germinate easily

we needle & will be pushed through the base of the flower

doing time for dope across the Virginia line with a demijohn

so cockeyed used to be on a weekend hooters of tote and Busch Ice

he and Johnny opening the push mower in his single wide

before they passed out he’d holler on the phone to anyone that’d answer

get a ride into down for the Hep. C meds were waiting as a fawn does

in the back pocket of a white coat with green eyes feeding

praise be to Obamacare and the others which safe us and kill us

open the dresses from the back and fuck us into the cavern

then beg us to thank them with our mountain dew hands

with my proud as hell dew hands with my working hands and hands I love

This is a train song a new river nay the old train that ran through yander thicket, hallowed the thy Vinny Ginny Creeper, the shoe shine soot stained and limping past the his pawpaw’s grave near the tracks, ole timers says they saw the train function despite how they hardly miss it and bless them lord for coming unto us with their smartphone buzz and wire tapped through the skull of the seeming preposterous and undead, for they may become marked and riddled with the tracks of Vinny taken from the county and saw my old lady in Abington looking nice for the weekend, her hair drawn up and tight, I sucked the venom from between my cranial cavity up my nose and spit it at her shoes, the Friendly Shoe Store special, two for one so I did it again, and I opened my twig and coal arms to smell and welcomed her into my embrace with the smell of biodiesel, damn son you’ve got a wild imagination and the train ride is hardly over, I’ve spent the night in Elkins, WV but never made it into Kentucky I’m afraid of my sole with years,  a Bill Monroe fiddle tune and sing me into sabbatical or leave me to woodshed on the thoughts of my kins dying across the river and there were no ridders in tow only the loose papers from the folks that lived in town or were lucky enough to have a business handed to them by them and theirs

Myth but death is not the least of these is that of for he came through the war without a scratch, may the record show, may the military record show the guilt of boy trying to catch the peppercorn cat who saw it and likely he will never pick the banjo again or hold the hammer again the untrue neck of a loved one and perhaps his soul will evaporate and join the final holding place: the water cycle under her death bed out of dust you began but nay out of the poison ravenous water of the 21st pollution were your heaved forward from and the bile pumping through you like an umbilical extension cord hooked up in the gorged and wrapped around the ankles of the hens sleeping in the driveway, by god country music started in Bristol and gutter tracked from there that’s what I’ve been told by the crooked banjo road sign and everything else I can chew on a birch branch till my mouth goes numb cause talking seems to be something not best now

the jellyfish brain of police officer was just taking his time

we ran into him at the dump and he was a week-old muskrat

his good eye traced the lazy hill from which he bellowed and swelled in his sleep

whom woke of night terrors of the pines chasing him to East Tennessee

whom woke of the sock stuffed deep into his eyeballs and plucked out

whom slept with a white-knuckle barricade of coins under his pillow

a roll for each of the banks he would take to if he was decided guilty

whom woke and woke too many time for the ungrateful slugs around bowlegged

on the porch of blind and deaf old man is a newspaper and a flower pot

he was drunk and shot before he could make it down the steps

he was shot before he could make it into his house

and JR said that people around here know better than to do that

people with their jellyfish heads and cow-liked over eyes

whom work until the check comes and work until after

whom would die for a tree patch and a garden to ho

THIS TRAIN IS BOUND FOR GLORY THIS TRAIN THIS TRAIN IS BOUND FOR GLORY THIS TRAIN THIS TRAIN IS BOUND FOR GLORY THIS TRAIN THIS TRAIN IS BOUND FOR GLORY THIS TRAIN THIS TRAIN IS BOUND FOR GLORY THIS TRAIN THIS TRAIN IS BOUND FOR GLORY THIS TRAIN THIS TRAIN IS BOUND FOR GLORY THIS TRAIN THIS TRAIN IS BOUND FOR GLORY THIS TRAIN THIS TRAIN IS BOUND FOR GLORY THIS TRAIN THIS TRAIN IS BOUND FOR GLORY THIS TRAIN THIS TRAIN IS BOUND FOR GLORY THIS TRAIN THIS TRAIN IS BOUND FOR GLORY THIS TRAIN THIS TRAIN IS BOUND FOR GLORY THIS TRAIN THIS TRAIN IS BOUND FOR GLORY THIS TRAIN THIS TRAIN IS BOUND FOR GLORY THIS TRAIN THIS TRAIN IS BOUND FOR GLORY THIS TRAIN THIS TRAIN IS BOUND FOR GLORY THIS TRAIN THIS TRAIN IS BOUND FOR GLORY THIS TRAIN THIS TRAIN IS BOUND FOR GLORY THIS TRAIN THIS TRAIN IS BOUND FOR GLORY THIS TRAIN THIS TRAIN IS BOUND FOR GLORY THIS TRAIN THIS TRAIN IS BOUND FOR GLORY THIS TRAIN THIS TRAIN IS BOUND FOR GLORY THIS TRAIN THIS TRAIN IS BOUND FOR GLORY THIS TRAIN THIS TRAIN IS BOUND FOR GLORY THIS TRAIN THIS TRAIN

Smithy did a Primitive Baptist jig

He snuck up the hill and caught lightening bugs by hisself

No one asked while Smithy did this

His tongue was forked when he walked to the river

Smithy stayed out each evening in June to find the here-after

Smithy caught nearly 400 lightening bugs and told only the jaybird on the flat rock

Thompson called Smithy a Hellbender because he ate em

Smithy did a Primitive Baptist jig and closed the light in

The bugs died in the jar and he kept them anyway

Thompson stopped by and shined a flashlight in his bedroom and told him to get dressed

Thompson took Smithy to edge of the county to Spenser Tree Patch at 3:31 am

Smithy said I’ve never caught a snipe and nor do I believe the earth was created in seven days

Smithy did a Primitive Baptist jig and held a white bed sheet up to let light in

Thompson wrapped Smithy’s eyes in a week-old rag which was gasoline soaked

Thompson told Smithy he was a great catcher of light and snipes will come

Smithy imagines the snipes to be as quick as a jaybird but washed in the blood of the lamb

And the waves of history take over Smithy’s hands he began to speak in tongues

Thompson giggled like hell and told him he saw a boy have a stroke a Hardee’s

Smithy begat the green lush of hills and danced a Primitive Baptist jig

Thompson laughed and laughed until he stopped and huddled under his truck

Light from the morning was nowhere to be seen and the eyes of a corn snake fed on a field mouse

Smithy’s forked tongue began poking into the high grass as he laid on his belly dancing

Thompson yelled for him and told him he’s save himself if he was a holy man

Just as so the Spenser’s farm hovered higher even than the Bluff

Thompson yelped like a week-old calf caught in a barbed wire fence

Diseases
Pest                                                       Symptoms                                                       
Black rot and                                      Starts as small, water-soaked leaf spots
seedling                                               and root rot. Decay may progress
damping-off.                                      rapidly. Affected tissues turn black.

Bacterial brown                                 Sunken, black spots with definite
spot                                                      margins. Start as small, water-soaked
                                                              spots. Not fatal to Cattleya. Disease
                                                              is serious on Phalaenopsis seedlings
                                                              and may be fatal.

Bacterial soft rot                               Soft, watery rot of leaves, often foul
                                                             smelling. Starts as small, water-
                                                             soaked area. Infection is through
                                                             wounds. Often fatal.

Gloesosporium leaf                         Prominent, sunken, reddish brown
                                                             spots with definite margins.
                                                             Spots start as minature, dark areas,
                                                             frequently at the leaf tip. Spots
                                                             may grow together and destroy the
                                                             entire leaf

Leaf spots                                           Irregular to oval, brown to black
                                                             spots with dark or tan centers.
                                                             Spores are produced on the under-     
                                                             sides of the leaves.

Rust                                                    Pustules of powdery, yellow or
                                                             orange spores on the undersides
                                                             of the leaves.

Botryis flower                                   Tiny, light-brown spots on the
brown speck of rot                           blossoms; may enlarge, rotting
(Botrytis cinerea)                            the entire flower. Wooly, gray
                                                             fungus spores develop on flowers

Evan Gray is from Jefferson, North Carolina and is the author of three chapbooks: Blindspot (the Rest (Garden-Door Press, 2018), BODY BIRTH (Above/Ground Press, 2019), and Dusk Melody (Shirt Pocket Press, 2019). His essays and poems have been featured in DIAGRAM, Tarpaulin Sky, Yalobusha Review, Word For / Word, and others. He currently lives and teaches in Pittsburgh, PA.